standardarchitecture studio visit

portait of garcia cruz (left) and zhang ke (right) at the standardarchitecture studio in beijing, china
image © designboom


on a recent trip to beijing, the designboom team visited the chinese practice standardarchitecture, an emerging design firm
producing contemporary projects rooted within their physical and cultural landscapes. founded by zhang ke and also led by
fellow principals zhang hong, hou zhenghua and claudia taborda, a group of twenty five individuals work in a collaborative
atmosphere housed within a factory compound in the haidian district. the hardworking team prefers tactile methods during the
design process, producing a range of hand crafted building and site contextual models for visualization through developing phases.

a former large-scale model currently contrasts the studio's industrial character, serving to separate the space in half while
providing additional pinup wall surfaces and storage areas inside and beneath the construct. an open circulation occurs around
the central linear divider, allowing designers to easily move from their workstations to the collaborative meeting areas where
a series of rolling partitions may be moved to facilitate brainstorming sessions.



collaborative space containing models including the dancing books tower, wuchang, china
image © designboom


covering a wide range of realized structures, their expertise includes a range of planning, architecture, landscape architecture
and product design. they remain focused upon the resolution of urban visions and ideas, typically maintaining connections
between a project's historical and traditional settings along with an element of intellectual debate.



meeting space
image © designboom



workstations with shared collaboration space
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workstations
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corridor along full scale model / room divider
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large scale model serves as room divider with additional pinup space and storage
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project boards for the namchabawa visitor center and niyang river visitor center
see designboom's original coverage of the niyang river visitor center here.
image © designboom



'niyang river visitor center' located in linzhi, tibet
see designboom's original coverage here.
image © chen su



studio resources
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process models
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model of 'folding house' in studio
see designboom's original coverage of this project here.
image © designboom



'folding house', showroom for camerich at the shanghai furniture expo
see designboom's original coverage of this project here.
image courtesy standardarchitecture



model detail of dancing books tower, wuchang, china
image © designboom



informal studio portrait
image © designboom



models stacked against the wall
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site context models
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contour model
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model of studio layout
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plan view of studio model
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ceiling consists of exposed rafters
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view of complex from studio entrance
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